J. Alison Bryant

Alison Bryant, Ph.D., is the president and founder of PlayScience – a research, consulting and innovation firm. She founded the company to break down the walls between industry innovators, academics, and consumers. She leverages her academic research expertise, deep understanding of consumers, entrenched industry knowledge, and strategic vision to partner with organizations looking to create, develop and launch new products, ideas and perspectives. She has spent more than a dozen years helping clients, colleaguesand students navigate the ever-changing media landscape and understand the lives and lifestyles of youth and families.

Bryant has spent her adult life moving between the academic and industry worlds. Prior to founding PlayScience, she was the chief strategy officer for Smarty Pants, a research and consulting firm focused on kids, teens and families. She also was previously senior research director of digital research and brand and consumer insights for the Nickelodeon/MTV Networks Kids & Family Group. She led Nick's efforts to understand the digital lives of consumers, conducting research on a variety of platforms: online, console and handheld gaming, interactive television, and mobile among them. She also served as the research and strategic insights mastermind behind the 18 websites and the Virtual World and Game Studios under the Nickelodeon umbrella, managing brands from Addicting Games to Nick to Neopets to Shockwave. Before joining Nickelodeon, she was an assistant professor of communication at Indiana University.

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